Elvis fan dies leading tour of 'King' sites

Jim Browder 'died doing what he loved,' friend says

An Elvis fan who was "consumed" with "The King" died Friday doing what he loved -- leading a tour of an out-of-the-way Elvis landmark.

Jim Browder, owner and operator of J B Tours, died en route to a hospital from the Kang Rhee Institute on North Germantown Parkway about 3:30 p.m.

Mr. Browder, whose company specialized in Elvis-themed excursions, was giving a tour of the Cordova karate studio where Elvis once trained.

His friend, Jamie Coyne, said Mr. Browder "died doing what he loved."

"He was consumed with Elvis ... and he met people and made friends from all over the world through his tour," he said.

An Arkansas native who later lived in Olive Branch and Memphis, Mr. Browder, 47, started his tours in 2001 by taking friends to lesser-known Elvis landmarks across the city, including the singer's favorite eateries, hangouts and motor shops.

"He was showing them places you'd never see on what I call the ' 'corporate' tour," Coyne said.

Those places included Mississippi grave sites of Elvis' extended family, making Mr. Browder's tours one of the most historically rich in Memphis, said Tony Gigliotti, 71.

"He could really put the things together between Elvis' past and present ... he was such a wealth of Elvis history," Gigliotti said.

Mr. Browder, who authored three books on Elvis and his life in Memphis, shared his passion with others not only through tours, but with memorabilia. He was known to gift tourists with Elvis-themed books, CDs and DVDs that he had collected. "He gave most of it away," Coyne said.

Mr. Browder, who served in the Navy in the early '80s, had a heart attack at an Elvis impersonators event in Tampa, Fla., last year.

His mother, 78-year-old Dorothy Gay, was with him Friday on the tour before he died.